Cisco Nexus 9500 Cloud-Scale Line Cards and Fabric Modules Data Sheet

Data Sheet

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Updated:December 21, 2024

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The documentation set for this product strives to use bias-free language. For the purposes of this documentation set, bias-free is defined as language that does not imply discrimination based on age, disability, gender, racial identity, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality. Exceptions may be present in the documentation due to language that is hardcoded in the user interfaces of the product software, language used based on RFP documentation, or language that is used by a referenced third-party product. Learn more about how Cisco is using Inclusive Language.

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Updated:December 21, 2024
 

 

Product overview

The Cisco Nexus® 9500 switching platform (Figure 1) offers three modular chassis:

      Cisco Nexus 9500 4-slot switch

      Cisco Nexus 9500 8-slot switch

      Cisco Nexus 9500 16-slot switch

Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Cloud-Scale Switch Chassis

Figure 1.            

Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Cloud-Scale Switch Chassis

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Series modular switches support a comprehensive selection of cloud-scale line cards and fabric modules that provide 1-, 10-, 25-, 40-, 50-, 100-, 200-, and 400-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. A cloud scale line card provides up to 6.4 Terabits per second (Tbps) per slot and each cloud scale fabric module provides up to 1.6 Tbps to each line card slot. Using these cloud-scale line cards the Cisco Nexus 9500 Series switches can be configured with up to.

1.     192 400-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)

2.     384 200-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)

3.     1024 100-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)

4.     2048 50-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)

5.     1024 40-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)

6.     2304 25-Gigabit Ethernet ports (or)

7.     2304 1/10-Gigabit Ethernet ports

Note:      This data sheet specifies hardware capabilities only. Please refer to Cisco ACI or Cisco NX-OS software release notes and appropriate feature documentation for more details.

Cisco Nexus 9500 platform cloud-scale line cards

The Cisco Nexus 9500 platform supports a rich selection of hot-swappable multispeed cloud-scale line cards and fabric modules optimized for data-center deployments. These cloud-scale line cards and fabric modules, built using Cisco® cloud-scale ASICs, provide the ideal foundation for large scalable data centers. The Cisco clouds-scale ASICs provide enhanced performance and features that are required to meet the evolving needs of the world’s largest cloud-scale data centers. These ASICs not only support foundational L2/L3 networking capabilities but also support enhanced capabilities such as policy-based fabric architectures (ACI or VXLAN), smart buffering, integrated line rate security, and real-time streaming telemetry over multispeed Ethernet ports.

The latest Cisco® 400-Gigabit cloud-scale ASICs also support Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6) and enhanced streaming telemetry capabilities.

Table 1.        Cisco Nexus 9500 cloud-scale line cards

Line Card Type

Description

400-Gbps line cards

N9K-X9716D-GX: 400-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card

Related image, diagram or screenshot

  16-port 400-Gigabit Ethernet Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable Double Density (QSFP-DD) line card
  Every port is 1x400-, 4x100-, 2x100G-, 4x50-, 4x40-, 4x25-, and 4x10-Gigabit Ethernet breakout capable *

100-Gbps line cards

N9K-X9736C-FX3: 100-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card

Related image, diagram or screenshot

  36-port 100-Gigabit Ethernet Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable 28 (QSFP28) line card
  Every port is 1x100-, 2x50-, 1x40-, 4x25-, 4x10-, and 1x10-Gigabit Ethernet breakout capable *
  Ports 1 – 28 support 1 Gigabit Ethernet

N9K-X9736C-FX: 100-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card

N9K-X9736C-FX: 100-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card

  36-port 100-Gigabit Ethernet Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable 28 (QSFP28) line card
  Every port is 1x100-, 2x50-, 1x40-, 4x25-, 4x10-, and 1x10-Gigabit Ethernet breakout capable *
  Ports 1 – 28 support 1 Gigabit Ethernet

N9K-X9732C-EX: 100-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card

N9K-X9732C-EX: 100-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card

  32-port 100-Gigabit Ethernet Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable 28 (QSFP28) line card
  Every port is 1x100-, 2x50-, 1x40-, 4x25-, 4x10-, and 1x1/10-Gigabit Ethernet breakout capable *

N9K-X9732C-FX: 100-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card

Related image, diagram or screenshot

  32-port 100-Gigabit Ethernet Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable 28 (QSFP28) line card
  Every port is 1x100-, 2x50, 1x40-, 4x25-, 4x10-, and 1x1/10-Gigabit Ethernet breakout capable *
  Supports 4+1 FM redundancy

N9K-X9736C-EX: 100-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card

N9K-X9736C-EX: 100-Gigabit Ethernet Line Card

  36-port 100-Gigabit Ethernet Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable 28 (QSFP28) line card
  Every port is 1x100-, 2x50-, 1x40-, 4x25-, 4x10-, and 1x1/10-Gigabit Ethernet breakout capable *

10/25-Gbps Fiber Line Cards

N9K-X97160YC-EX: 1/10/25-Gigabit Ethernet Access-Layer and 10/40/100-Gigabit Ethernet Aggregation-Layer Line Card

N9K-X97160YC-EX: 1/10/25-Gigabit Ethernet

  48-port 1-, 10-, and 25-Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ and 4-port 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 line card

10-Gbps copper line cards

N9K-X9788TC-FX: 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet BaseT Access-Layer and 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet Aggregation-Layer Line Card

N9K-X9788TC-FX: 1/10 Gigabit

  48-port 100-Megabit and 1/10-Gigabit Ethernet BASE-T and 4-port 40/100-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 line card
* Breakout capability requires the availability of appropriate breakout cables and software support. Please check Cisco ACI and Cisco NX-OS software release notes and the Cisco Optics Compatibility Matrix for the latest available support.

Table 2.        Cisco Nexus 9500 cloud-scale line card use-case summary

Line Card/Features

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco ACI® spine

MACSec

N+1 FM redundancy

X9716D-GX

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

X9736C-FX3

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

X9736C-FX

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

X9732C-EX

Yes

Yes

No

No

X9732C-FX

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

X9736C-EX

Yes

No

No

No

X97160YC-EX

Yes

No

No

No

X9788TC-FX

Yes

No

Yes

No

Table 3.        Cisco Nexus 9500 cloud-scale line card specifications

Line card

FM required for max bandwidth

FM required for N+1 redundancy

Performance

Packet buffer

X9716D-GX

4

N/A

12.8 Tbps

4.3 bpps

160 MB

X9732C-EX

4

N/A

6.4 Tbps

4.3 bpps

160 MB

X9736C-FX3

5*

N/A

7.2 Tbps

2.4 bpps

160 MB

X9736C-FX

5*

N/A

7.2 Tbps

2.4 bpps

160 MB

X9732C-FX

4

5#

6.4 Tbps

2.16 bpps

160 MB

X9736C-EX

4

N/A

6.4 Tbps

4.9 bpps

160 MB

X97160YC-EX

4

N/A

3.2 Tbps

2.17 bpps

80 MB

X9788TC-FX

4

N/A

1.76 Tbps

0.59 bpps

80MB

* To achieve max bandwidth with 5 fabric modules and X9736C-FX or X9736C-FX3 cards, the line cards in the chassis must only be the X9736C-FX or X9736C-FX cards. The X9736C-FX cards supports up to 6.4Tbps when mixed with other line cards and 4 fabric modules.
# To achieve N+1 fabric module redundancy with 5 fabric modules and X9732C-FX cards, the line cards in the chassis must only be the X9732C-FX cards.

Select EX, FX, and GX line cards can be installed together in the same Cisco Nexus 9500 chassis. In such a configuration, the chassis supports a maximum of four fabric modules and any additional fabric modules installed will be powered down. Any features or capabilities that require more than four fabric modules will be automatically disabled in such a configuration.

Cisco Nexus 9500 cloud-scale platform fabric modules and performance

The Cisco Nexus 9500 platform is designed as a Clos fabric that interconnects each line card directly with each rear-mounted fabric module. All traffic between the line cards is load balanced across all fabric modules, providing optimal bandwidth distribution within the chassis. This load-balancing capability provides enhanced system reliability and redundancy. The switch continues to operate even in the event of a loss of a fabric module, albeit at a lower capacity, as the remaining fabric modules continue to provide switching capacity to the line cards.

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Cloud Scale platform supports the following fabric modules:

      4-slot and 8-slot FM-G fabric modules that provide up to 1.6 Tbps capacity per line card slot.

      8-slot and 16-slot FM-E2 fabric modules that provide up to 800 Gbps capacity per line card slot.

      4-slot, 8-slot, and 16-slot FM-E fabric modules that provide up to 800 Gbps capacity per line card slot.

These fabric modules provide upgradability and investment protection for the Cisco Nexus 9500 Series chassis. All fabric modules installed in a chassis should be of the same type.

Table 4.        Cisco Nexus 9500 cloud-scale line cards and FM-G Fabric Module Compatibility

Line card/FM

C9504-FM-G

C9508-FM-G

X9716D-GX

Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS

Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS

X9736C-FX3

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

X9736C-FX

Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS

Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS

X9732C-EX

Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS

Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS

X9732C-FX

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

X9736C-EX

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

X97160YC-EX

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

X9788TC-FX

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Table 5.        Cisco Nexus 9500 cloud-scale line cards and FM-E/E2 Fabric Modules Compatibility

Line card/FM

C9504-FM-E

C9508-FM-E

C9516-FM-E

C9508-FM-E2

C9516-FM-E2

X9716D-GX

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

X9736C-FX3

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

X9736C-FX

Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS

Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS

Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS

X9732C-EX

Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS

Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS

Cisco ACI spine and Cisco NX-OS

X9732C-FX

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

X9736C-EX

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

X97160YC-EX

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

X9788TC-FX

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

Cisco NX-OS

The Cisco Nexus 9500 Cloud Scale line cards support several forwarding templates to efficiently allocate onboard memory for varying deployment scenarios.

Note:      This data sheet specifies hardware capabilities only. Please refer to Cisco ACI or Cisco NX-OS software release notes and appropriate feature documentation for more details.

Table 6.        Cisco Nexus 9500 Cloud-Scale Line Cards: Product Specifications – Performance and Scale1

 

Cisco Nexus 9500 Series cloud-scale line cards (X9716D-GX)

Cisco Nexus 9500 Series cloud-scale line cards (X9736C-FX3, X9736C-FX, X9732C-FX, X9788TC-FX)

Cisco Nexus 9500 Series cloud-scale line cards (X9732C-EX, X9736C-EX, X97160YC-EX)

Number of Longest Prefix Match (LPM) route entries

IPv4: Upto 2 million

IPv6: 1,900 to 1 million (based on prefix length)

IPv4: Up to 2 million

IPv6: 1,900 to 1 million (based on prefix length)

IPv4: up to 1 million

IPv6: 1900 to 500,000 (based on prefix length)

Number of IP host entries

IPv4: up to 2 million

IPv6: up to 32,000

IPv4: up to 2 million

IPv6: up to 32,000

IPv4: up to 1 million

IPv6: up to 16,000

Number of MAC address entries

Up to 1 million

Up to 512,000

Up to 512,000

Number of multicast routes

Up to 131,000

Up to 131,000

Up to 32,000

Number of Interior Gateway Management Protocol (IGMP) snooping groups

With VPC: 4000 to 32,000

Without VPC: 8000 to 32,000

With VPC: 4000 to 32,000

Without VPC: 8000 to 32,000

With VPC: 4000 to 32,000

Without VPC: 8000 to 32,000

Number of VLANs

Up to 4096

Up to 4096

Up to 4096

Number of Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) instances

Up to 16,000

Up to 16,000

Up to 16,000

Number of port channels

Up to 512

Up to 512

Up to 512

Number of port channel links

Up to 32

Up to 32

Up to 32

Number of Equal Cost Multipath (ECMP) paths

Up to 64

Up to 64

Up to 64

Number of active Cisco Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) sessions

4 to 32

4 to 32

4 to 32

Number of Multiple Spanning Tree (MST) instances

Up to 64

Up to 64

Up to 64

Number of Rapid per-VLAN Spanning Tree (RPVST) instances

Up to 4000

Up to 4000

Up to 4000

Number of Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) groups

Up to 490

Up to 490

Up to 490

Number of tunnel endpoints (VTEP) and VXLAN physical servers per VLAN

Up to 10,000

Up to 10,000

Up to 10,000

Supported optics modules

Each Cisco Nexus 9500 cloud-scale line card supports an extensive set of optic modules. The Cisco Optics Compatibility Matrix (https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/home) provides the list of optics supported on each line card.

Mechanical specifications

Table 7.        Cisco Nexus 9500 Cloud-Scale Line Cards: Product Specifications – Mechanical

 

X9716D-GX

X9732C-EX

X9736C-FX3

X9736C-FX

X9732C-FX

X9736C-EX

X97160YC-EX

X9788TC-FX

Weight

15.2 lb

6.8 kg

12.13 lb

5.5 kg

14.38 lb

6.5 kg

14.38 lb

6.5 kg

15 lb

6.8 kg

14.77 lb

6.7 kg

12.75 lb

5.78 kg

13 lb

5.9 kg

Typical power

650 W

430 W

690 W

607 W

520 W

632 W

415 W

513 W

Maximum power

1680 W

720 W

1075 W

900 W

840 W

792 W

516 W

684 W

Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) hours

338,442

481,470

420,050

420,050

429,090

476,970

580,050

429,630

Hot swappable

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Airflow

Port-side intake

Port-side intake

Port-side intake

Port-side intake

Port-side intake

Port-side intake

Port-side intake

Port-side intake

Table 8.        Cisco Nexus 9500 FM-G Cloud-Scale Fabric Modules: Product Specifications – Mechanical

 

N9K-C9504-FM-G

N9K-C9508-FM-G

Total capacity

6.4 Tbps

12.8 Tbps

Capacity (per slot)

1.6 Tbps

1.6 Tbps

Maximum flow size

400 Gbps

400 Gbps

Weight

7.7 lb (3.4 kg)

14.08 lb (6.3 kg)

Typical power

455 W

685 W

Maximum power

504 W

936 W

MTBF hours

551,390

455,270

Hot swappable

Yes

Yes

Airflow

Port-side intake

Port-side intake

Table 9.        Cisco Nexus 9500 Cloud-Scale FM-E/E2 Fabric Modules: Product Specifications – Mechanical

 

N9K-C9504-FM-E

N9K-C9508-FM-E

N9K-C9508-FM-E2

N9K-C9516-FM-E

N9K-C9516-FM-E2

Total capacity

3,200 Gbps

6,400 Gbps

6,400 Gbps

12,800 Gbps

12,800 Gbps

Capacity (per slot)

800 Gbps

800 Gbps

800 Gbps

800 Gbps

800 Gbps

Maximum flow size

100 Gbps

100 Gbps

100 Gbps

50 Gbps

100 Gbps

Weight

6.6 lb (2.98 kg)

11.6 lb (5.28 kg)

10.94 lb (5.0 kg)

22.7 lb (10.3 kg)

20.31 lb (9.21 kg)

Typical power

234 W

455 W

266 W

980 W

439 W

Maximum power

313 W

570 W

420 W

1320 W

900 W

MTBF hours

829,890

653,420

642,820

363,100

515,870

Hot swappable

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Airflow

Port-side intake

Port-side intake

Port-side intake

Port-side intake

Port-side intake

Regulatory standards compliance

Table 10.     Regulatory standards compliance: safety and EMC

Specification

Description

Regulatory compliance

Products should comply with CE Markings according to directives 2004/108/EC and 2006/95/EC

Safety

  UL 60950-1 Second Edition
  CAN/CSA-C22.2 No. 60950-1 Second Edition
  EN 60950-1 Second Edition
  IEC 60950-1 Second Edition
  AS/NZS 60950-1
  GB4943

EMC: Emissions

  47CFR Part 15 (CFR 47) Class A
  AS/NZS CISPR22 Class A
  CISPR22 Class A
  EN55022 Class A
  ICES003 Class A
  VCCI Class A
  EN61000-3-2
  EN61000-3-3
  KN22 Class A
  CNS13438 Class A

EMC: Immunity

  EN55024
  CISPR24
  EN300386
  KN 61000-4 series

RoHS

The product is RoHS-6 compliant with exceptions for leaded-Ball Grid-Array (BGA) balls and lead press-fit connectors.

Ordering information

Table 11.     Cisco Nexus 9500 Cloud-Scale Line Cards: ordering information

Part Number

Product Description

N9K-X9716D-GX (=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 16p 400G QSFP-DD cloud-scale line card

N9K-X9732C-EX (=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 32p 100G QSFP cloud-scale line card

N9K-X9736C-FX3 (=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 36p 100G QSFP cloud-scale line card

N9K-X9736C-FX (=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 36p 100G QSFP cloud-scale line card

N9K-X9732C-FX(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 32p 100G QSFP cloud-scale line card

N9K-X9736C-EX(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 36p 100G QSFP cloud-scale line card

N9K-X97160YC-EX(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 48p 1/10/25G SFP+ plus 4p 100G QSFP cloud-scale line card

N9K-X9788TC-FX(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 48p 1/10G BaseT plus 4p 100G QSFP cloud-scale line card

Table 12.     Cisco Nexus 9500 Cloud-Scale Fabric Modules ordering information

Part Number

Product Description

N9K-C9504-FM-G(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 4-slot 1.6Tbps cloud-scale fabric module

N9K-C9508-FM-G(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 8-slot 1.6Tbps cloud-scale fabric module

N9K-C9504-FM-E(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 4-slot 800Gbps cloud-scale fabric module (100G flows)

N9K-C9508-FM-E(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 8-slot 800Gbps cloud-scale fabric module (100G flows)

N9K-C9516-FM-E(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 16-slot 800Gbps cloud-scale fabric module (50G flows)

N9K-C9508-FM-E2(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 8-slot 800Gbps cloud-scale fabric module (100G flows)

N9K-C9516-FM-E2(=)

Cisco Nexus 9500 16-slot 800Gbps cloud-scale fabric module (100G flows)

Note:      All part numbers with “=” sign refer to Spare part numbers for ordering.

Warranty

The Cisco Nexus 9500 platform has a 1-year limited hardware warranty. The warranty includes hardware replacement with a 10-day turnaround from receipt of a Return Materials Authorization (RMA).

Cisco environmental sustainability

Information about Cisco’s environmental sustainability policies and initiatives for our products, solutions, operations, and extended operations or supply chain is provided in the “Environment Sustainability” section of Cisco’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report.

Reference links to information about key environmental sustainability topics (mentioned in the “Environment Sustainability” section of the CSR Report) are provided in the following table:

Sustainability topic

Reference

Information on product material content laws and regulations

Materials

Information on electronic waste laws and regulations, including products, batteries, and packaging

WEEE compliance

Cisco makes the packaging data available for informational purposes only. It may not reflect the most current legal developments, and Cisco does not represent, warrant, or guarantee that it is complete, accurate, or up to date. This information is subject to change without notice.

Service and Support

Cisco offers a wide range of services to help accelerate your success in deploying and optimizing the Cisco Nexus 9500 platform in your data center. These innovative Cisco Services offerings are delivered through a unique combination of people, processes, tools, and partners and are focused on helping you increase operational efficiency and improve your data center network.

Cisco Advanced Services use an architecture-led approach to help you align your data center infrastructure with your business goals and achieve long-term value. Cisco SMARTnet Service helps you resolve mission-critical problems with direct access at any time to Cisco network experts and award-winning resources. With this service, you can take advantage of the Cisco Smart Call Home service, which offers proactive diagnostics and real-time alerts on your Cisco Nexus 9500 platform switch.

Spanning the entire network lifecycle, Cisco Services offerings help increase investment protection, optimize network operations, support migration operations, and strengthen your IT expertise.

Cisco Capital

Flexible Payment Solutions to Help You Achieve Your Objectives

Cisco Capital makes it easier to get the right technology to achieve your objectives, enable business transformation and help you stay competitive. We can help you reduce the total cost of ownership, conserve capital, and accelerate growth. In more than 100 countries, our flexible payment solutions can help you acquire hardware, software, services and complementary third-party equipment in easy, predictable payments. Learn more.

For more information

For more information about the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series, please visit https://www.cisco.com/go/nexus9000.

Document history

New or revised topic

Described in

Date

Updated MACsec support details.

Line card use-case summary (Table 2)

September 12, 2023

Updated the datasheet with X9736C-FX3 line card

Added the new line card X9736C-FX3 for Nexus 9500 System

December 20, 2024

 

Learn more